


Love at Galaxy's Edge

by Scoby



Series: Decades of Reylo [7]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Amusement Park, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Ben Solo Deserved Better, Cosplay, F/M, Flirting, I made myself laugh, Kissing, Meta, Parents Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Pick-Up Lines, Rey & Rose Tico Are Best Friends, Rey Fixes TROS, Star Wars Fans, Theme Park Queue Pick-Up, Theme Park Visitors Ship It, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000, reylo kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:09:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Scoby/pseuds/Scoby
Summary: “Can you see my surroundings? I can’t see yours. Just you.”He was not the first man who had tried to hit on her with that line today...[...Eight years later...]“What did you read to her?”“The Rise of Skywalker.”“Did you censor the ending again?”“No.”“I heard you.”“Ben, have mercy, she’s still so young.”
Relationships: Rey & Rose Tico, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Series: Decades of Reylo [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1877596
Comments: 3
Kudos: 31





	Love at Galaxy's Edge

The queue to the Rise of the Resistance ride meandered so long that Freya would have to wait for a while before she would even make it under the shade from the burning afternoon sun. But there was no way she would give up, not after she had spent months eating only pasta with ketchup to be able to afford the ticket and travel.

Freya took the last place in the queue and started making calculations about how many rides Roza would have time to hammer while she would wait here. Roza had gone through a similar pasta and ketchup diet, and her approach to get her pain and money’s worth was to prioritise the use of time on the rides where the queuing was fastest, along with few strategically chosen ones that were the most physically thrilling. Standing in line for Star Wars rides in Florida heat was not worth it in her logic.

Freya had reached the fence where she could lean on, when she saw a tall man approaching the queue. Despite the heat, he was wearing long jeans and sweater as black as his hair. Assuming that he was trying to sneakily skip the line, she was about to wave her hand towards the end of the queue to point out where his rightful place was. But he walked straight up to her, not skipping ahead but staying next to her, looking straight into her eyes as he said:

“Can you see my surroundings? I can’t see yours. Just you.”

He was not the first man who had tried to hit on her with that line today, after they had parted ways with Roza for their independent missions. It may have something to do with what she was wearing as a result of their first night in Orlando. They had got drunk, bought one scavenger costume and taken an arm wrestling match to determine who would have to wear it for Disney World.

Freya had lost, suspecting that Roza had cheated but unable to prove it. So they had started this morning by assembling the collection of drapes, belts and arm wraps on Freya. Roza had finalised the outfit by tying her dark brown hair into three buns in the back, smiled with sizzling satisfaction and taken dozens of pictures.

To each of the other men who had approached Freya with the same words in different queues, she had told that she definitely could see his surroundings and was, in fact, more interested in those than him. But in this one, who was standing in front of her right now, there was something that did make his surroundings blur a little bit. Already his chest was so broad that it covered a large portion of those. Freya shifted her weight and said:

“You’re just saying that to skip the end of the line.”

“And did it work? Can I queue with you?”

Flustered, Freya glanced at the people behind her, wondering what they would think if she’d allow a random person to skip them, especially as they certainly had understood that they did not know each other. The next people in line were a middle-aged couple. The man was obliviously browsing his phone, and the woman smiled at Freya and raised her eyebrows as a silent way of saying: ‘Go for it!’

“Ok”, she responded then. “What’s your name?”

“Ben.”

“No, that’s not possible.”

“Why not? It’s a pretty common name, isn’t it? And my parents are Star Wars fans, too.”

Freya chuckled. “Ok, I believe you. That explains a lot. I’m Freya.”

“Nice to meet you… Freya.” He offered her his hand and she shook it.

They chatted most of the waiting time they had left. It turned out that his situation was similar to hers. He was also here with a friend who was not up for queuing for Star Wars rides. Only, they had travelled here from the opposite direction, from California.

Unlike to his friend, to Ben, Star Wars was everything. He had grown up in a house designed according to the Millennium Falcon. His father still lived there after his parents’ divorce. The fascination with Star Wars went so far back in his family that his mother liked to tell him that her father had already imagined the whole saga when he was a little boy, before it all came to being.

Every time she told this story, she increased the amount of details that her father had supposedly guessed right. So Ben did not know how much to believe of it anymore. But it was certain that before there was television, his grandfather had enjoyed looking at the night sky and imagining everything that could have happened somewhere in that vast emptiness a long time ago.

And Ben had hilarious stories about growing up in such a household. For example, when they had tickets for the whole family for the premier of The Phantom Menace, the excitement got so intense that Ben developed a high fever the previous night. That made them afraid that he would have to stay home.

The terror of missing the premier further escalated his fever, until they had to take him to the hospital and spend a night worried for his life. But by morning, the whole fever was gone and he was ready to head back home and dress up in his Darth Vader costume in preparation for the evening.

Even though he repeatedly made Freya laugh, listening to him was bittersweet. In the foster home where she grew up, Star Wars was never part of the conversation. Among the selection of worn out toys she played with, though, there was one action figure of Luke Skywalker, with its lightsaber blinking, until the battery ran out and was never replaced. That fascinated her, even though it took a long time before she found out what it was.

She watched all the Star Wars when she was already a young adult. Roza made her watch the prequel and original trilogies in one weekend, as a necessary preparation so that she could go with her to see The Force Awakens. And once she saw The Force Awakens, she was sold.

From then on, she dragged Roza with her to the premiers of every sequel and spin off. Roza did not mind as she casually enjoyed them, too, even though she could not understand her best friend’s obsession. To her, they were nothing extraordinary, just movies. But not to Freya.

Finally, they were so close to the gate that they estimated they might be in the next batch to be let in. When the gate opened again, they moved so close that they could already feel the soft breeze of the air conditioning on their faces. But right in front of them, the guard said:

“One more person.”

Hesitant, they both looked at each other. And right then, without saying anything, they both knew that they did not want to be parted for this ride. They squeezed towards the aisle to give space for the closest single person to push through the front of the line and stayed behind the closed gate to wait for the next batch to be let in.

The ride proved worth of all the waiting. They screamed in wonder and thrill and were left in awe when it ended and they went back out to the blinding sunlight. They lingered outside the exit, reluctant to part ways yet.

“Emmm, have you been to the Smuggler’s Run yet?” Ben asked.

“Nope. Shall we go?”

But they did not get far before they were stopped by a group of five teenage girls. One of them asked in a shy, marvelling voice:

“Can we take a picture with you?”

Freya and Ben looked at each other and grinned, sure that their outfits and appearance had made the girls mistake them for staff. But looking at the cute and innocent admiration in their eyes, neither of them had the heart to break theirs. So they stopped for a picture.

One picture turned into several, as they wanted several versions, each on their own and as a group. Ben’s arm turned out to be the perfect length to fit all the seven of them into one selfie. Two of the girls had blue lightsabers, which they added to Ben and Freya’s hands for a finishing touch in the last set of pictures.

After handing the lightsabers back, they thought they were done. But the girls turned all giggly and started to exchange side-eyed gazes with each other. Eventually, the others began to push with their elbows at the one who had first spoken, until she pulled herself together again and said:

“We'd like to see the Reylo kiss.”

Freya looked at Ben as five phones around them were turned on to record. She did not know whether to laugh or say something or… They just stared at each other for a moment, until Ben broke the silence:

“You’re supposed to kiss me, right?”

Oh yes, of course. Now that he said it, it felt all clear. _That_ was what Freya's whole life had been heading towards. She took a step closer to him, rose up on her toes and searched for the right position for her hand on his cheek. How was it possible that the skin on Ben’s cheek felt exactly like she had always imagined it to feel on Ben Solo? Then she closed the rest of the distance and kissed him.

When she backed up a little, he looked at her with a smile that revealed his teeth and lit his face up with dimples. They only remembered their audience when they started repeating in a chorus:

“Thank you thank you thank you thank you…”

Then they also remembered that they had been on their way to Smuggler’s Run. They said goodbye to the girls, whose eyes were now dreamy and shining like they would have just visited heaven, and headed off to face a new queue.

The line to Smuggler’s Run was as long as their previous one. The waiting time turned into more kisses.

When they walked out of the ride, lips swollen and heads spinning not only from the hyperspace simulation, Roza was waiting outside. She pulled Freya into a hug, pretending she had already missed her, but in reality, rather as an excuse to get close to her ear so that she could whisper:

“So the costume worked! I can see that you’ve scavenged something.”

Freya blushed, introduced Roza to Ben quickly and changed the subject:

“What happened to you? Isn’t there still an hour left before closing? I would have thought you could fit a few more rides in that.”

“I’m dizzy… Too many too crazy rides without stopping to eat. But it was worth it!”

Roza’s pale face grinned.

“We need to take you to the hostel”, Freya said and turned to Ben. “Can you find me on Skype?”

She typed her Skype name on Ben’s phone and accepted his contact request on her own. Then she kissed him for a final time, took Roza’s arm around her shoulders and supported her reeling body to walk out to the bus stop.  
  


* * *

  
_Eight years later:_

“And then she kissed him. When she drew back to look at him again, he laughed softly, and his eyes looked into hers in deep joy. They took the elevator back up from the ruins of the Sith temple, climbed into the TIE fighter and took off through the debris that was falling all over Exegol. They flew all the way to Ajan Kloss, where the Resistance was celebrating their victory and welcomed them as heroes of the galaxy. Then they lived happily ever after, until the end of their days.”

Freya closed the book and placed it on the nightstand.

“Good night, Leyla”, she whispered, kissed her daughter’s brow, stroked her raven hair and pulled the blanket higher over her shoulders.

Then she tiptoed out of the room and closed the door quietly behind her. She snuggled under Ben’s arm on the living room sofa and rested her head against the edge of his chest.

“What did you read to her?” he asked.

“The Rise of Skywalker.”

“Did you censor the ending again?”

“No.”

“I heard you.”

“Ben, have mercy, she’s still so young.”

“She’s old enough to experience literature as the artists have intended. Think what will happen on the day when she has learned to read herself and goes to open those final pages…”

“Don’t talk to me about that day. For now, she’s still my baby.”

“Sooner or later someone’s got to tell her. You can’t protect her from the world forever.”

“Yes yes yes. I’m just asking for a couple more years.”

And she started to stroke his arm lightly with her fingertips – the kind of touch that always made him relax and agree.


End file.
